Milonga (music)

Milonga is a musical genre that originated in the Río de la Plata areas of Argentina and Uruguay. It was very popular in the 1870s. It was derived from an earlier style of singing known as the payada de contrapunto. The song was set to a lively 24tempo, as are most milongas.

"Milonga is an excited habanera." The original habanera divided into four pulses, in a standard two-four where every note was stressed. In becoming milonga, though, all four notes turned strong, as tempo was doubled. The strength of the first beat weakened the fourth giving an almost waltz-like feel to milonga: one-two-three(four), one-two-three(four).
Habanera is a slower, more explicit sounding one, two, three-four. At least one modern tango pianist believes the polka influenced the speeding up of the milonga.[1]

Milonga has a syncopated beat, consisting of 8 beats with accents on the 1st (sometimes also 2nd), 4th, 5th, and 7th beats.

Argentine composer and pianist Fernando Otero has based many of his orchestral and chamber works on this rhythm [3]
,creating compositions for Symphonic Orchestra, String Quartet and Jazz Combos.[4][5][6]

Kevin Johansen is a modern Argentine rock artist who has a number of songs that combine folkloric and pop music with a milonga rhythm.